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Before Rob Ford made his recent Hollywood debut, some expected it would be the prelude to a brilliant career as the star of a reality show, a phone-in program or some similar celebrity vehicle.

In the aftermath, however, any such hopes were dashed; not only was the chief magistrate’s performance utterly predictable, even pathetic, it was boring. In Hollywood and the wider celebrity industry, one can commit no greater sin than that of boredom.

It took Ford only minutes with Jimmy Kimmel before he reverted to form and started repeating the usual stuff about saving taxpayers’ hard-earned cash, providing personal customer service and returning every phoned-in gripe no matter how petty or insignificant it might seem to anyone else.

Ford was spouting the same as far back as the last mayoral election in 2010. In those days, he would show up at a debate where regardless of the evening’s topic — the environment, transit, architecture, whatever — he would mumble about how he had returned 10,000 calls, would stop the gravy train and, well, the rest has become history.

At the time, he was laughed at, hooted, jeered and generally humiliated night after night. At times, one almost felt sorry for the man, though he himself seemed oblivious. He was right, of course, none of it made an iota of difference; he won regardless.

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Clearly, those people who support Ford are not the same people who attend candidates’ debates. They weren’t bothered by his guilelessness, lack of self-consciousness or too-easy answers. According to conventional wisdom, the important thing was that he returned phone calls.

Who knows? Perhaps that was enough for the disenfranchised, the ignored, the huddled masses who chose Ford. It’s hard to believe, but maybe that’s all it took.

But even if it were, there aren’t enough of them to elect Ford. The truth is that many middle-class voters also cast their ballot for him.

Senior executives in the financial industry, businessmen, even journalists, voted for him knowing full well who and what Ford is. His promises to lower taxes, get even with the civic bureaucracy and kill the vehicle registration were sufficient to trump whatever doubts they had about a candidate as dubious as Ford. Such is the power of self-interest, not to mention greed, which runs deep in our veins.

The other side of the coin, though, was Ford’s ability to reduce highly complicated issues to simple questions of yes or no. You want a subway? No problem, I’ll build you one. Paying too much tax? Don’t worry, I’ll lower the rates.

Things don’t work that way, but still we want to believe that they could, they might, they should, if only . . . Torontonians whose jobs require them to operate in complex environments and make difficult decisions were suddenly willing to suspend disbelief, to ignore bitter personal experience and put their better judgment on hold, however temporarily.

Since then, Ford’s time in office has been one long series of fiascos and embarrassments. Just when you think the situation couldn’t get any worse, it does. Ford has lurched from crisis to crisis assuring us that he wasn’t elected to be perfect. Yes, he’s made mistakes, but who hasn’t?

And so as Toronto’s collective withdrawal from reality lurches to its inevitable conclusion on Oct. 27, the question isn’t whether Ford can win again, but whether we’re ready to get real, whether Torontonians have come to their senses or prefer to continue in the shared state of denial that has made the last four years such a waste not just of resources and reputation, but most preciously, of time.

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